Sometimes serious. Sometimes humorous. Always unpredictable. By Dan Pimentel - Welcome to the Airplanista Aviation Blog, where I take a lighthearted look at general and business aviation, the airlines, and the incredible and generous community of aviators called #Avgeeks...they are my aviation family. I am currently available for magazine and corporate writing assignments - Email me here.

11:05 AM

Football season means more TFRs

It used to be that we could hop in our Wichita Bomber and plow off through the strata to hone in on a cooked slab of dead cow that cost one-tenth of a grand…fat, dumb and happy. Flight planning was for those high timers flying planes with V-tails or birds with two engines.

Not so anymore:

One of my jaunts when I lived in Cali was over the coast range to Half Moon Bay. As I crossed through the South San Francisco Bay area, I could look over and see Candlestick Park, where “my” ‘Niners played football. But now that we live in the era of the TFR du jour, Bay Approach won’t let you get anywhere near what is now called (reluctantly) 3Com Park.

AOPA has a great reference page up on their wonderful site listing ALL stadiums and speedways where you can expect TFRs on game (or race) day, along with NFL schedules to see if one of those TFRs will conflict with your quest to seek out really expensive hamburgers.

There are all sorts of sources for TFR information out there on the web, so there really is no excuse to bust one, unless you are the type of pilot who thinks flight rules are for the other guy. The FAA’s TFR search page is real-time, and Aeroplanner has a great state-by-state search available.